Syrian crisis on minds as Obama pays tribute at Pentagon

WASHINGTON — For President Barack Obama, the prospect of more U.S. military action in the Middle East hung over his observance Wednesday of the Sept. 11 attacks that occurred a dozen years ago.

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — For President Barack Obama, the prospect of more U.S. military action in the Middle East hung over his observance Wednesday of the Sept. 11 attacks that occurred a dozen years ago.

While Obama made no direct mention of the crisis in Syria, he vowed to "defend our nation" against the threats that endure, even though they may be different than the ones facing the country during the 2001 attacks.

"Let us have the wisdom to know that while force is sometimes necessary, force alone cannot build the world we seek," Obama said during a ceremony at the Pentagon.

Among those gathered at the Pentagon Wednesday where family members of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001. Many wore red, white, and blue striped ribbons and some cried as the president spoke.

The morning was sunny as it was a dozen years ago at the time of the attack, but the temperature was hotter and climbing toward a high in the 90s. A few in the crowd were treated for effects of the heat by military medics, and the president wiped his face with a handkerchief as he spoke.

The president also paid tribute to the four Americans killed one year ago in an attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, asking the country to pray for those who "serve in dangerous posts" even after more than a decade of war.

In a commemorative event at the Justice Department, Attorney General Eric Holder called on an audience of several hundred employees to remember "the nearly 3,000 innocent people whose lives were lost" and to pay tribute to the 72 law enforcement officers who were killed trying to save others.

Obama opened the day with a somber remembrance at the White House. The searing memory of death and destruction brought him to the South Lawn for a moment of silence and reflection a dozen years after terrorists emblazoned this date indelibly in people's minds, hearts and calendars as "9/11."